We've been doing Christmas activities all December long! It's been so fun. And to have several weeks to enjoy the theme, we were able to do homeschool at a leisurely pace. Which is good, because even in covid times, December is crazy busy! Take a look!
Books
We read a ton of Christmas books all month long. But here are the ones that we read the most, with Don't Push the Button being her very favorite!
Gluing + Fine Motor
Sweet E decorated a Christmas tree using sequins and gems. Getting a dot of glue right where you want it is great fine motor practice!
Sweet E decorated a Christmas tree using sequins and gems. Getting a dot of glue right where you want it is great fine motor practice!
Visual Discrimination - Ornament Patterns
This is an old file folder game from Honey Pot's tot school days! Free printable from Itsy Bitsy Fun.
This was a challenge, but she did them all!
Scissor Skills - Trim Santa's Beard
Saw this activity all over Pinterest, so I made my own version in Photoshop. Sweet E loved this!
Learning Lowercase q
Catching up on a lowercase letter we missed! Free printable from Easy Peasy Learners.
Learning Notebook
The lowercase b, d, p, and q look very similar! So we did some stamping to review them! Matching upper and lowercase letters.
Jingle Bell Exploration
This was inspired by Happy Toddler Playtime.
We used the magnetic wands to pull the jingle bells through the tubes!
And gather them all up at once!
She had so much fun, and actually so did Little M&M when he came home from school and saw it!
Dyed Dry Noodles
I dyed some penne noodles for various Christmas activities.
First I offered it with some pom poms, pipe cleaners, and a coffee tin with a small hole in the lid.
Sweet E began by threading noodles onto the pipe cleaners.
We turned these into bracelets. :)
Then she started dropping the noodles and pom poms into the coffee tin.
We also used the noodles for some counting practice.
Learning Lowercase s
We used the pipe cleaners to learn lowercase s.
Then we practiced recognizing it with this free printable maze from 1+1+1=1.
Learning Lowercase t
We used our dyed noodles to learn lowercase t.
Then we practiced with another free printable maze from 1+1+1=1.
Color Mixing + Painting
Sweet E loved making an orange fire using red and yellow paint, during our community helpers week. So I decided to do it again to make a green tree! I provided her with some yellow and blue paint, and she mixed them together while finger-painting.
The color was just perfect! Once it dried, I cut it out, and she glued it down onto a white paper. Then she colored in the circles to show how she made green.
So cute!
Measuring and Comparing
This free printable comes from Gift of Curiosity. We don't have unifix cubes, so we used our red and green wooden blocks.
With each page she completed, I'd ask her questions to help her compare them. Which has the most, least? Which is the biggest, smallest?
She wanted to write the number beside each too!
Jingle Bell Counting
Another jingle bell activity, this time using MagnaTiles as trees.
Sweet E counted the bells as she put them on each tree, to get to the number that I had written in front of each. Great counting and number practice!
Pin Poking Ornaments
Sweet E actually requested a poking activity today. So I found this foam board and pins (from an old string art kit) and she poked them into the tree on each dot.
She was very careful!
Candy Cane Patterns
I drew three candy canes, and started three patterns with stickers for her to complete. AB, AAB, and ABC. Another fun, hands-on activity inspired by Happy Toddler Playtime.
Antler Alphabet Match
Free printable comes from Teachers Pay Teachers. I only printed up to the letter t, since that's what we've learned so far.
This was one of those activities that I expected she'd do a little bit, and then finish it another day. But she sat and did them all!
Mailing Letters to Santa
Another totally free printable from Teachers Pay Teachers. I loved this idea! We've used salt trays (and even shaving cream) to write letters before, but this time we used flour to try something new. Sweet E actually loved this! First she'd look at and name the letter on the envelope. Next she'd write it in the flour with her finger. Then she mailed the letter to Santa by dropping it into her mailbox. "Letters" to Santa. So cute.
She loved to play in it too!
And had no trouble shaking the tray to reset it for the next letter.
Sometimes she liked to write it with a paintbrush.
Santa's Beard - Number Order
Free printable from Childcare Land. It's meant to be a countdown to Christmas, but we have enough of those in our house. So I used it as a number order activity! Sweet E needed to find each number in order, and glue a cotton ball onto each.
This was great review for those bigger numbers that we're still working on. She can count just fine, but sometimes doesn't recognize the numerals.
And it felt so soft too!
When she was done, she colored it in.
The finished product!
Cutting, Shape-Sorting, Counting, and Fine Motor
I came up with this activity to include lots of skills. First, Sweet E cut out some lines to form Christmas trees.
Then she sorted foam stickers by shape onto each one.
Finally, she had to count how many shapes were on each tree, and attach that number star to the top of the tree with a clothespin.
Love how these came out!
Learning Lowercase u
Free printable from Teachers Pay Teachers.
Gingerbread Playdoh
Sweet E and I made a fresh batch of scented playdoh! The recipe comes from Hip2Save, and it smelled SO GOOD.
We made some gingerbread men, and other shapes. And of course we made them talk to one another.
I also pulled out some of my old Christmas playdoh mats.
We kept this activity handy throughout December, and she (and Little M&M and Honey Pot) returned to it often!
Learning Lowercase v
Rhyming Christmas Trees
This free printable comes from Teachers Pay Teachers! Still a hard concept for Sweet E, but she completed all the puzzles with help.
Learning Lowercase w
Another pushpin poking activity at her request!
Lego Duplo Puzzles
This free printable is from I Can Teach My Child. There are supposed to be four puzzles, but I realized I didn't have as many Lego Duplos as I thought lol.
Unwrapping the Alphabet
To review all of the lowercase letters we've learned so far, I came up with an activity for Sweet E to unwrap letters like gifts. I used foil because it was quick! Inside each foil "present" was an uppercase letter tile (from the game Upwords actually), and she had to identify it, then match it to the lowercase one on her paper.
She loved this!
Each one was exciting, which letter will it be!
Tangled Christmas Lights - Number Order
Here's another activity I came up with. It's like a connect-the-dots activity, but with each dot there is a light bulb. Then when she was finished connecting the dots in number order, it'd look like tangled Christmas lights!
Decorating a Christmas Tree
We had some leftover candies from our gingerbread house, so I let each of the kids decorate an ice cream cone "tree" with them. First, slather on the green frosting!
Then decorate with candies...or, just pour them onto your plate lol.
Ta-da!
Missing Christmas Lights - ABC Order
A free printable from 123 Homeschool 4 Me. Just a quick, hands-on way to review ABC order! We used magnetic letters to fill in the missing letters.
Build a Gingerbread House
An adorable free printable from Teachers Pay Teachers! Sweet E had to follow a recipe card to add particular amounts of "gumdrops" to her gingerbread house. We used pom poms. Great counting practice!
Learning Notebook
Sweet E used her finger to find the correct path to Santa!
Learning Notebook - Sticker and Counting
In between school activities, Sweet E sometimes uses her notebook just for sticker "plunking" lol. So for this activity, I invited her to "plunk" as many Christmas stickers onto the page as she wanted, then she could count them up!
She counted them all, and wrote the number on the page!
Learning Lowercase x
Reindeer Clip Cards
A cute free printable from Teachers Pay Teachers!
Kitty loves to sit with her during homeschool!
Felt Board
I made this for Honey Pot years ago! By special request, I brought it back out for Sweet E.
She built the tree, added the star and ornaments, and then finally, placed the presents.
And she likes to use my phone to take pictures of her own finished activities. So here is one she took:
Little M&M came by later and made a tree too:
Invisible Numbers
I wrote the numbers 11-19 with white crayon inside the Christmas bulb ornaments. Then I invited Sweet E to paint them with watercolors. As she found each one, she could check it off on her checklist!
Repetition is key to learning to recognize these numbers. I think they're really starting to click.
She had a lot of fun revealing the hidden numbers!
Christmas Name Puzzle
This free printable is from Totschooling! We'd practiced her name in all uppercase letters for months. But now that Sweet E is learning lowercase letters, I wanted to write her name the right way. I placed a piece of tape face-up on the right side of each, so they'd stick together when she placed the reindeer in order.
She had no trouble!
And she loved playing with the finished version, flying it around the house!
Learning Notebook
A little practice recognizing t's versus x's! These are so tricky!
I had plans to do a few more activities during the half-week before Christmas. But we chose to do lots of baking and family activities instead! Merry Christmas!
